Page 183 - Build a Culture of Employee Engagement with the Principles

154 Carrots and Sticks Don’t Work

which included having a “spotless image.” For example, employ-
ees are expected to keep their offices and work areas neat and
anyone with a company car is required to wash it on Sunday.
One weekend the CEO stopped by his new executive’s office and
determined that it did not meet his expectations. He cleaned the
office and left the following note: “When I say that your office
needs to be neat, this is how I expect it to look.” Although I don’t
recommend this strategy, the new VP now clearly knows the
expectation. If you find that people are often not meeting your
expectations, I suggest you start taking some responsibility for
being clearer with your communication. What you mean by a
clean office may not match up with an employee’s definition of
one. People who are highly intuitive need to be particularly sen-
sitive to giving vague instructions; they typically have a clear
idea of what they want in their head but often don’t paint a full
picture for others.
Have you ever worked for a boss who told you that you should
focus on X one day, changed it to Y a few days later, and the fol-
lowing week asked why you were working on Y when you should
be making progress on Z? Such supervisors greatly frustrate
employees and inhibit their productivity and efficiency. How can
any employee feel fully engaged and committed to reaching a
goal when it may no longer be relevant tomorrow? Under these
circumstances, employees feel jerked around and often lose
respect for their supervisors and feel disrespected. Most goals
should be set out several months in advance and altered judi-
ciously for sound and clearly articulated reasons.
I once consulted with a large chain of dry cleaning stores.
The owner was frustrated that his shirt pressers were not more
efficient; they averaged forty-five shirts an hour, and he wanted
them to do sixty. These were very experienced employees, and